Say Something (I'm Giving Up On You)
by LiveLaughLovex
Summary: Skye didn't know why she couldn't give up on Ward. Perhaps it was because everyone else had, or because he had never give up on her. Perhaps it was because she couldn't give up on him because she would be giving up on herself. Whatever the reason, she needed him to say something, anything, to allow her to hold onto her belief, her hope, that he was the man she had always loved.


**A/N: I was listening to 'Say Something' by Christina Aguilera when I realized that it was so close to being Skye and Ward's theme song. Due to this, I wrote this in less than an hour. Any errors are mine. If you listen to the song while reading this, you may cry. That's my only warning. Takes place after the fight scene between Ward and Skye in nothing personal. Please enjoy reading and remember to review!**

There were hours left for them on that airplane. Skye leaned against the cool metal of the staircase's rails, her cheeks flushed with tears she hadn't meant to shed. How could she not, though? How could she not be heartbroken over the fact that one of the handful of people she had trusted had betrayed her in the worst possible way, had broken her once again just when she was beginning to grow mended?

She had longed for him to deny it. She had begged him mentally to do so, to give her someone to love, to give her something to hold onto. She had fallen for him without ever realizing it, and it was irrational that she felt betrayed by him. She had been betrayed since her birth. She shouldn't be surprised by it.

She had believed him to be different, though. Everyone had believed him to be different. The cold specialist they had met on their very first mission had been replaced by a man, a man who felt pain in the same way that they did, a man so broken that he wasn't even sure he could heal himself, and they had thought that the changes were permanent.

Skye had stared at him for those moments after she had confirmed her knowledge of his betrayal and wondered if she had ever known the man before her. She had every reason to believe she didn't know him at all. He was, after all, the man who had harmed so many, had caused so many so much pain and heartache.

She believed she had known him, though; she just hadn't known the version of him that stood before her. For the duration of their working relationship she had known the no-nonsense specialist who had known much too much pain inflicted by the hands of his brothers and his mother and father. She had known who Grant Ward as a man, as a human being, she had known who he was. She didn't know this version of him because this was the version that John Garrett had created, the version that had been broken too many times to believe that anyone would bother to show him anything resembling mercy.

She begged him with her eyes in those moments to tell her something, anything, to allow her to hold onto her hope for him and her belief in him. She wanted him to say something, anything, to keep her from giving up on him.

But, like so many times before, he was silent.

She had fallen blindly in love with him, without knowing much about him. He had said that she wouldn't be able to tolerate being in the same room with him had she known. She hadn't believed him. She didn't believe him now.

She had looked into his medical history and his abuse records. She had noticed which comments were erased from the system, statements that proclaimed that Grant Ward was a victim of child abuse and should be removed from the home of his mother and father and kept a safe distance away from his elder brother.

She had questioned her superior the next day, her voice hard as she made a verbal statement about how strange it was that SHIELD hadn't intervened after the abuse continued when he had graduated from their academy. How had they overlooked it, not questioning the abuse of his supervising officer?

The answer was simple _. They hadn't known._

They had known parts of his family history, but only the parts he had wanted them to know. They hadn't known that he was a victim of child abuse so severe that he was removed from his home by his grandmother eighteen times before his tenth birthday. With his father being such a prominent politician, the files had been erased. Only Skye had gained access to them.

They hadn't known of his broken jaw at the age of six or his crushed fingers at the age of ten. They hadn't been able to question his fifty hospital visits before the age of seven because the files had been recorded at private hospitals and erased immediately after his treatment. They hadn't been able to protect him from his superior officer's abuse because it always occurred after missions that went awry.

Commander Hill had apologized profusely for their mistakes. "If we had known," she had said, her voice breaking, "he wouldn't have been allowed near Ward." She had the concern of someone who knew the pain endured by Ward, and, for the next of many times, Skye began to wonder about her deputy director's own past.

They hadn't known. That didn't make it remotely all right. That didn't erase the scars, the broken ribs and ankles, the bruises. It didn't make Ward whole again. It didn't return the childhood that had been lived in misery. It did absolutely nothing.

But it did do something. It gave her the needed hope. It gave her the power to turn towards him, her eyes wide, and stare at him.

"I can't hate you," she said, her voice hoarse and breaking, and he glanced towards her. "I really wanted to. You betrayed the team, you- you did things. But I can't hate you." She sighed as she glanced away from him. "One of my foster mothers gave me one piece of advice before she sent me back to the orphanage. I didn't think I would ever use it. I'm using it now, though."

"What was it?" he asked, his eyes holding a profound hope that nearly broke her.

"She said, 'One day you're going to have to make a decision, to hate a man for the things he's done or love him for the man he is.'"

His eyes grew wide.

"Loving you was never a decision I had to make, Grant. It was made for me. You tried to protect me even when you didn't know me. You're so broken, Grant, so broken that you heal those around you because no one is broken in the same way. Two broken people can't heal one another if they're broken in the same way. And we're not. I never had a family and you had a horrible one, but we are not them. I love you because you are a man who has overcome pain. I love you because even on your worst day, I would rather be with you than without you."

He stared at her, and she saw tears prick his eyes. She broke inside but kept her features gentle outwardly.

"You've never heard the words before, have you?"

"No."

"Isn't that one of the saddest things about this world?"

"What?"

"Those most deserving of love are those who have rarely known it."

"I love you, too."

"I know."

"I have to make this right."

"I believe you will."

"I don't know what to say to make you believe in me."

"You've said the most important words in the world, Grant. I will never give up on you."

And then, for a moment, there was no world outside, no war between SHIELD and HYDRA and the pain they both had hidden so well for so long. There was just a glance, a glance that said more than even the longest novel, and that was all they needed. They had said the right thing. They would follow one another anywhere.

They would never give up on one another because they were the ones who had been given up on. They were the other's family now. And, in their opinions, that was much better than the families they had been born to.


End file.
